YMMV / Lupin III: The Italian Adventure

• Accidental Innuendo: Goemon's words right before he uses his sword to non-lethally remove a bomb planted in Belladonna's heart?
  Goemon: Relax, I'm going in.
• Complete Monster:
  • "With a Gun in My Hand": Eric "The Unkiller" Orgiani is a sadistic crime boss who goes from town to town forcing protection money from the residents until he runs them dry. Given his moniker for his preferred method of punishment, Eric has his men non-fatally shoot any resistors, leaving hospitals full of the "living dead", even crippling a child and old man for slighting him.
  • "Requiem for the Assassins": Leopoldo Fa(r)go/Flago is a popular politician whose success hides a dark secret. Raising the orphan girl Belladonna as his personal assassin, Fago has her eliminate rival criminals as well as his other assassins to hide his activities. With Belladonna completely twisted to his will, Fago also molests her at his leisure and even planted a bomb within her, viewing her as his doll to do with as he sees fit.
• Fan Nickname: To distinguish this series from Lupin III: Part 1 and Lupin III: Part II, and to keep up the Theme Naming with those plus "Pink Jacket", some fans call this series "Blue Jacket" and its title character "Blupin".
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The English dub has Cassandra Lee Morris voice Rebecca Rossellini, who the Phantom Thief Lupin marries in the first episode. She'd also voice the partnering cat of another Phantom Thief that uses Arsene Lupin as his Persona.
  • A significant chunk of the series revolves around Lupin's attempts to annul his marriage to Rebecca—who in turn is called out by Fujiko during the events of "The Drunken Pig" for not knowing Lupin at all, leading Rebecca to begin reflecting upon their "relationship." By the finale, Rebecca reveals to Lupin she never actually signed their marriage certificate and, having genuinely fallen for him, wants to become a thief worthy of the name "Mrs. Lupin". In the following series, viewers eventually learn that Lupin instead got hitched to Fujiko sometime after their adventures in Italy. On the other hand, Fujiko's aforementioned dressing down of Rebecca crosses over into Harsher in Hindsight, as the pair also divorced prior to Part 5, creating a rift between them that drives Fujiko to prod Lupin for answers on how he really views her—though Lupin's answer to her question in the final episode and the ending of Part 5 itself suggests they're (probably) back to being an Outlaw Couple.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Due to the immense popularity of the Lupin III franchise in Italy, the series began airing over there several months before it aired in Japan.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • The clone of Leonardo da Vinci created by MI6 escapes their custody to become the philosophical ultimate villain of the series. Quickly adapting to the present day, Leonardo seeks to create an evolved and harmonized humanity with his plan to "redesign the world", manipulating terrorists and even MI6 themselves to see his goal come to fruition. Hypnotizing all of Italy into engaging him in a world of dreams where they must overcome him in a contest using their best talent, Leonardo implants his own personality into those who fail while gracefully letting those who win live on as themselves. Assimilating all but the main cast, Leonardo faces down against Lupin in his dream world to decide the fate of all mankind, coming within mere moments of victory, before finally accepting his defeat with quiet grace even as he lies dying.
  • "Until the Full Moon Passes": Elena Gotti is the seemingly-innocent widow of corrupt media mogul Roberto, swearing that she knows nothing of her late husband's stash of dirty money even as the world hounds her about it. Truthfully having found the fortune with her own wits long before the abusive Roberto's death, Elena manipulates Inspector Zenigata into fooling the whole public that the fortune was robbed, thereby removing the reports and attempted thieves from Elena's path. Elena then goes about using the fortune to fight local mafia and prostitution rings like the ones she grew up in, swearing to save any crying woman and daring their oppressors to cross her on live television.
• Misblamed: Some complained to Discotek Media for basing the English dub on the Italian airings rather than the Japanese version. That decision was made by TMS themselves, however; at worst, Discotek was a bit hands off with the dub. Additionally, the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the series separated the Japanese audio and the English audio rather than putting them in the same set. Some complained about this as well, but according to Reed Nelson, this was because the Italian video, the one used for the English dub, and the Japanese video have many visual differences, and alterations to the dub audio would be needed to line it up with the Japanese visuals. Giving the dub and the sub their separate sets was the best compromise they could come up with.